So you’ve won a multi-million dollar jackpot, and you want to know how to avoid end up miserable from having all that money. First: Don’t tell anyone. If you don’t have enough willpower for that, tell people that a distant… Read moreWhat to do after you win the lottery

Reddit is killing it this morning “Not idly do the rings of Valyria fall” “She may yet be alive” …. “The great grass sea, home of the horse lords…… DAARIO!, what do your sell-sword eyes see!?” “They’re taking the queen… Read moreGame of Thrones: The Two Towers

The greatest joy in life is seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time and killing an enemy Khal. The two, two greatest joys in life are seeing a beautiful woman naked for the first time, killing an enemy… Read moreMonty Python and the Imprisoned Khaleesi

I loved this movie, because I thought it explored several of the key challenges and ideas in superhero ethics and morality. It borrows heavily from concepts and imagery discussed in The Dark Knight Returns (the comic book), and I… Read moreBatman Vs Superman

Let’s say I was the FBI, and I found a fantastic back door into the iPhone. What would I do with that information? Well, I might very well pick a very public fight with Apple, demanding that they open their… Read moreThought Experiment

Another hack, another takeover of my wordpress blog. This one was more insidious – they left the main page alone, and I only discovered the problem when I happened to want to write an article, and couldn’t. I had to… Read moreand we’re back

The argument about why deflation is bad seems to boil down to: “Deflation makes people keep cash instead of spending it….” To some degree, sure, it gives people a reason to spend less, in the same way that high interest… Read moreWhy I don’t fear deflation

Scott Sumner at http://www.themoneyillusion.com/ regularly reminds his readers to “never reason from a price change”. Which, if I understand it correctly, means never to assume that certain things will happen if the price of something changes. He’s given various examples… Read moreStruggling with “Never reason from a price change”

Gennady Stolyarov II writes an article discussing the merits of mandatory vaccination. I found this link via a post from Dr Robert Murphy who I profoundly disagree with on a number of things. But in this case, I must agree… Read moreI enter the Mandatory Vaccination quagmire

This article on the rational case for voting was interesting. Derek Parfit’s “Harmless Torturers” argument His argument here is that since performing 1/1000th of a torture is clearly bad, we shouldn’t even perform 1/1000th of a torture. Fair enough. He… Read moreMissing the mark on rational voters

I agree with Marginal Revolution, this article about the Gates Foundation totally reads like the criticism of Reardon Metal. I mean, the gall of that man, giving away so much money without the guidance of the intellectual zeitgeist.

War, huh, yeah What is it good for? Resource Allocation! Uh-huh War, huh, yeah What is it good for? Human Coordination! Say it again, y’all War, huh, good God What is it good for? Intelligent Cooperation Listen to me! Ooooh,… Read moreWar! Uh! What is it good for?

This is basically the starting point of the nightmare scenario for me with regards to government. I understand the position that government exists to solve problems. And I agree that there are plenty of problems that the government can solve… Read moreAn open letter to my friends on the Left

I’ve read extensively about HealthCare.gov, and I’ll be honest with you. I’m more than a little relieved that it has failed. That sounds cruel, but bear with me. I’m relieved because for that project to have succeeded, given the constraints… Read moreHealthCare.gov

You know that trend where our infrastructure is failing – that more and more of our bridges are structurally deficient, etc? Turns out that that’s not a thing. In percentage terms, the number of structurally deficient bridges has been cut… Read moreCrumbling infrastructure